In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.

In music, the organ (from Greek ὄργανον organon, "organ,
instrument, tool")[1] is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe
divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own
keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet
using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument,[2]
dating from the time of
CtesibiusCtesibius of Alexandria (285–222 BC), who
invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek
and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games.[3]
During the early medieval period it spread from the
ByzantineByzantine Empire,
where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial
court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent
place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.[3] Subsequently it
re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music
tradition.

Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the
16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which
can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks
and controlled by the use of hand stops and combination pistons.
Although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not
affect dynamics (it is binary; pressing a key only turns the sound on
or off), some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the
dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are totally
enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set
of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are
expressive. These instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a
cubic yard to a height reaching five floors,[4] and are built in
churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are
called "positive" (easily placed in different locations) or
"portative" (small enough to carry while playing). Increasingly hybrid
organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic
additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially
when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced.
Non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the
accordion and harmonica (or "mouth organ") use air to excite free
reeds.
Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ,
generate electronically produced sound through one or more
loudspeakers.
Mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and
Orchestrion. These are controlled by mechanical means such as pinned
barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of
an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by an organ
grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor.

South corp in the Duomo di Milano. The history of this large organ
(now with about 16,000 pipes) began in 1395, and it was continuously
remodeled until 1986. The present decoration is from the 16th century.

Pipe organs[edit]
Main article: Pipe organ

4th century AD "Mosaic of the Female Musicians" showing a woman
playing organ from a
ByzantineByzantine villa in Maryamin, Syria.[5]

The pipe organ is the largest musical instrument. [citation?] It has
existed in its current form since the 14th century, though similar
designs were common in the
Eastern Mediterranean from the early
ByzantineByzantine period (from the 4th century AD) and precursors, such as the
hydraulic organ, have been found dating to the late Hellenistic period
(1st century BC). Along with the clock, it was considered one of the
most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial
Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a single short keyboard to
huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ
typically has three or four keyboards (manuals) with five octaves (61
notes) each, and a two-and-a-half octave (32-note) pedal board.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the "King of instruments".[6]
Some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes (a foot here means
"sonic-foot", a measure quite close to the English measurement unit),
and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. Perhaps the
most distinctive feature is the ability to range from the slightest
sound to the most powerful, plein-jeu impressive sonic discharge,
which can be sustained in time indefinitely by the organist. For
instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic
resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras.
Another interesting feature lies in its intrinsic "polyphony"
approach: each set of pipes can be played simultaneously with others,
and the sounds mixed and interspersed in the environment, not in the
instrument itself.
Church organs[edit]

The
BaroqueBaroqueLeżajskLeżajsk organ (:De), built by Stanisław Studziński and
Jan Głowiński in 1693, has mechanical (tracker)action and 75 voices
played from three manuals and pedal.[7]

Most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in
Christian churches. The introduction of church organs is traditionally
attributed to
Pope VitalianPope Vitalian in the 7th century.[citation needed] Due
to its simultaneous ability to provide a musical foundation below the
vocal register, support in the vocal register, and increased
brightness above the vocal register, the organ is ideally suited to
accompany human voices, whether a congregation, a choir, or a cantor
or soloist. Most services also include solo organ repertoire for
independent performance rather than by way of accompaniment, often as
a prelude at the beginning the service and a postlude at the
conclusion of the service.
Today this organ may be a pipe organ (see above), a digital or
electronic organ that generates the sound with digital signal
processing (DSP) chips, or a combination of pipes and electronics. It
may be called a church organ or classical organ to differentiate it
from the theater organ, which is a different style of instrument.
However, as classical organ repertoire was developed for the pipe
organ and in turn influenced its development, the line between a
church and a concert organ became harder to draw.
Organs are also used to give recital concerts, called organ recitals.
In the early 20th century, symphonic organs flourished in secular
venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, designed to
replace symphony orchestras by playing transcriptions of orchestral
pieces. Symphonic and orchestral organs largely fell out of favor as
the orgelbewegung (organ reform movement) took hold in the middle of
the 20th century, and organ builders began to look to historical
models for inspiration in constructing new instruments. Today, modern
builders construct organs in a variety of styles for both secular and
sacred applications.
Chamber organs[edit]

Chamber organ by Pascoal Caetano Oldovini (1762).

A chamber organ is a small pipe organ, often with only one manual, and
sometimes without separate pedal pipes that is placed in a small room,
that this diminutive organ can fill with sound. It is often confined
to chamber organ repertoire, as often the organs have too few voice
capabilities to rival the grand pipe organs in the performance of the
classics. The sound and touch are unique to the instrument, sounding
nothing like a large organ with few stops drawn out, but rather much
more intimate. They are usually tracker instruments, although the
modern builders are often building electropneumatic chamber organs.
Pre-Beethoven keyboard music may usually be as easily played on a
chamber organ as on a piano or harpsichord, and a chamber organ is
sometimes preferable to a harpsichord for continuo playing as it is
more suitable for producing a sustained tone.
Theatre organs[edit]
Main article: theatre organ

The theatre organ or cinema organ was designed to accompany silent
movies. Like a symphonic organ, it is made to replace an orchestra.
However, it includes many more gadgets, such as percussion and special
effects, to provide a more complete array of options to the theatre
organist. Theatre organs tend not to take nearly as much space as
standard organs, relying on extension and higher wind pressures to
produce a greater variety of tone and larger volume of sound from
fewer pipes.

This extension is called "unification", meaning that instead of one
pipe for each key at all pitches, the higher octaves of pitch (and in
some cases, lower octaves) are achieved by merely adding 12 pipes (one
octave) to the top and/or bottom of a given division. Assuming there
are sixty-one keys on an organ manual (a common number in concert
organs and in North America), a classical organ has—for diapason
stops at 8', 4' and 2' pitch—183 pipes (61 plus 61 plus 61). The
same chorus of diapasons on a theatre organ has only 85 pipes (61 plus
12 plus 12). Some ranks, such as the Tibia Clausa, with up to 97
pipes, allow the organist to draw stops at 16', 8', 4', 2', and
mutations from a single rank of pipes.
Unification gives a smaller instrument the capability of a much larger
one, and works well for monophonic styles of playing (chordal, or
chords with solo voice). The sound is, however, thicker and more
homogeneous than a classically designed organ, and is very often
reliant on the use of tremulant, which has a depth greater than that
usually found on a classical organ. Unification also allows pipe ranks
to be played from more than one manual and the pedals.
Other pipe organs[edit]
The bamboo organ called Bambuso sonoro is an experimental custom-made
instrument designed by Hans van Koolwijk. The instrument has 100
flutes made of bamboo.[8]

A harmonium. Operation of the two large pedals at the bottom of the
case supplies wind to the reeds.

A chord organ with array of chord buttons on left side.

Reed organs[edit]
Main article: Pump organ
The pump organ, or harmonium, was the other main type of organ before
the development of electronic organs. It generated its sounds using
reeds similar to those of a piano accordion. Smaller, cheaper and more
portable than the corresponding pipe instrument, these were widely
used in smaller churches and in private homes, but their volume and
tonal range was extremely limited, and they were generally limited to
one or two manuals, pedalboards being extremely rare.
Chord organs[edit]
Main article: Chord organ
The chord organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1950.[9] It
provided chord buttons for the left hand, similar to an accordion.
Other reed organ manufacturers have also produced chord organs, most
notably Magnus from 1958 to the late 1970s.[10]
Electronic organs[edit]
Main article: Electric organ
Since the 1930s, pipeless electric instruments have been available to
produce similar sounds and perform similar roles to pipe organs. Many
of these have been bought both by houses of worship and other
potential pipe organ customers, and also by many musicians both
professional and amateur for whom a pipe organ would not be a
possibility. Far smaller and cheaper to buy than a corresponding pipe
instrument, and in many cases portable, they have taken organ music
into private homes and into dance bands and other new environments,
and have almost completely replaced the reed organ.
Hammond organs[edit]
Main article: Hammond organ

The
Hammond organHammond organ was the first successful electric organ, released in
the 1930s. It used mechanical, rotating tonewheels to produce the
sound waveforms. Its system of drawbars allowed for setting volumes
for specific sounds, and it provided vibrato-like effects. The
drawbars allow the player to choose volume levels of 0-8 for each of
the members of the harmonic series starting from 16'. By emphasizing
certain harmonics from the overtone series, desired sounds (such as
'brass' or 'string') can be imitated. Generally, the older Hammond
drawbar organs had only preamplifiers and were connected to an
external, amplified speaker. The Leslie speaker, which rotates to
create a distinctive tremolo, became the most popular. The three most
popular models of Hammond organs were the consoles: the B-3, C-3, and
A-100. Inside all three models, the tone generators, drawbars, and
keyboards were identical. The B-3 cabinet stood on 4 legs, the C-3 was
an enclosed "church" model, and the A100 series had built in
amplifiers and speakers.
In addition to these console models, Hammond also produced spinet
models, which differed from the consoles in the size of keyboard (44
keys per keyboard versus 61 for the consoles, and 12 or 13 pedals
instead of 25) and the absence of foldback and scaling in the
keyboards making them cheaper to manufacture. Other features of the
console organs such as vibrato or percussion were included in the
spinets; all the spinet models featured a built in amplifier and
speaker; when used with the external amplified speaker (e.g.: Leslie)
they sound similar to the console models. These smaller all-in-one
organs were intended primarily for use in homes or very small
churches.
Though originally produced to replace organs in the church, the
Hammond organ, especially the model B-3, became popular in jazz,
particularly soul jazz, and in gospel music. Since these were the
roots of rock and roll, the
Hammond organHammond organ became a part of the rock
and roll sound. It was widely used in rock and popular music during
the 1960s and 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Procol
Harum, Santana and Deep Purple. Its popularity resurged in pop music
around 2000, in part due to the availability of clonewheel organs that
were light enough for one person to carry.

Allen organs[edit]
Main article: Allen organ
In contrast to Hammond's electro-mechanical design, Allen Organ
Company introduced the first totally electronic organ in 1938, based
on the stable oscillator designed and patented by the Company's
founder, Jerome Markowitz.[11] Allen continued to advance analog tone
generation through the 1960s with additional patents[12]. In 1971, in
collaboration with North American Rockwell,[13] Allen introduced the
world's first commercially-available digital musical instrument. The
first Allen Digital Organ is now in the Smithsonian Institution.[14]
Other electronic organs[edit]
Frequency divider organs used oscillators instead of mechanical parts
to make sound. These were even cheaper and more portable than the
Hammond. They featured an ability to bend pitches.
In the 1940s until the 1970s, small organs were sold that simplified
traditional organ stops. These instruments can be considered the
predecessor to modern portable keyboards, as they included one-touch
chords, rhythm and accompaniment devices, and other electronically
assisted gadgets. Lowrey was the leading manufacturer of this type of
organs in the smaller (spinet) instruments.
In the '60s and '70s, a type of simple, portable electronic organ
called the combo organ was popular, especially with pop,
SkaSka (in the
late 1970s and early 1980s) and rock bands, and was a signature sound
in the pop music of the period, such as
The DoorsThe Doors and Iron Butterfly.
The most popular combo organs were manufactured by
FarfisaFarfisa and Vox.
Conn-SelmerConn-Selmer and Rodgers, dominant in the market for larger
instruments, also made electronic organs that used separate
oscillators for each note rather than frequency dividers, giving them
a richer sound, closer to a pipe organ, due to the slight
imperfections in tuning.
Hybrids, starting in the early 20th century,[15] incorporate a few
ranks of pipes to produce some sounds, and use electronic circuits or
digital samples for other sounds and to resolve borrowing collisions.
Major manufacturers include Allen, Walker, Compton, Wicks, Marshall
& Ogletree, Phoenix, Makin Organs, Wyvern Organs and Rodgers.

A typical Virtual Pipe Organ system. (Hauptwerk)

Digital organs[edit]
The development of the integrated circuit enabled another revolution
in electronic keyboard instruments. Digital organs sold since the
1970s utilize additive synthesis, then sampling technology (1980s) and
physical modelling synthesis (1990s) are also utilized to produce the
sound.
Virtual pipe organs use
MIDIMIDI to access samples of real pipe organs
stored on a computer, as opposed to digital organs that use DSP and
processor hardware inside a console to produce the sounds or deliver
the sound samples. Touch screen monitors allows the user to control
the virtual organ console; a traditional console and its physical stop
and coupler controls is not required. In such a basic form, a virtual
organ can be obtained at a much lower cost than other digital
classical organs.

Calliope on a stern-wheeler

Steam organ[edit]
Main article: Calliope (music)
The wind can also be created by using pressurized steam instead of
air. The steam organ, or calliope, was invented in the United States
in the 19th century. Calliopes usually have very loud and clean sound.
Calliopes are used as outdoors instruments, and many have been built
on wheeled platforms.
Organ music[edit]
Classical music[edit]
Main article: organ repertoire
The organ has had an important place in classical music, particularly
since 1500. Spain's Antonio de Cabezón, the Netherlands' Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Italy's
Girolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi were three of
the most important organist-composers before 1650. Influenced in part
by the latter two of these men (not by Cabezón), the North German
school rose from the mid-17th century onwards to great prominence,
with leading members of this school having included Buxtehude, Franz
Tunder, Georg Böhm, and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
contributions to organ music continue to reign supreme.
During this time, the French Classical school also flourished.
François Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, André Raison, and Nicolas de
Grigny were French organist-composers of the period. Bach knew
Grigny's organ output well, and admired it. In England,
HandelHandel was
famous for his organ-playing no less than for his composing; several
of his organ concertos, intended for his own use, are still frequently
performed.
After Bach's death in 1750, the organ's prominence gradually shrank,
as the instrument itself increasingly lost ground to the piano.
Nevertheless, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, and the less famous
A.P.F. Boëly (all of whom were themselves expert organists) led,
independently of one another, a resurgence of valuable organ writing
during the 19th century. This resurgence, much of it informed by
Bach's example, achieved particularly impressive things in France
(even though Franck himself was of Belgian birth). Major names in
French Romantic organ composition are Charles-Marie Widor, Louis
Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles Tournemire, and Eugène Gigout. Of
these, Vierne and Tournemire were Franck pupils.
Late in the 19th century, Germany's
Max RegerMax Reger began devoting a great
deal of his compositional time to the organ (notwithstanding his own
lack of virtuoso ability at the instrument). Reger's output for the
instrument owes much to the harmonic daring of
LisztLiszt (whose own organ
works are meritorious) and of Wagner. It ranges from miniatures to his
more characteristic large-scale works such as the choral fantasias,
Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (Opus 57), Fantasy and Fugue on B.A.C.H
(Opus 46) and the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original
Theme (Opus 73). Despite the fact that Reger was only in his 43rd year
when he died in 1916, his contribution to the organ repertoire is
probably second only to Bach's in terms of bulk. Fellow German Paul
Hindemith produced three noteworthy organ sonatas and several works
combining organ with chamber groups. Sigfrid Karg-Elert, yet another
German, specialized in smaller organ pieces, mostly chorale-preludes,
often of an extremely flamboyant type. Among French
organist-composers, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier
Messiaen made especially significant contributions to the 20th-century
organ repertoire.
Some composers incorporated the instrument in symphonic works for its
dramatic effect, notably Mahler, Holst, Elgar, Scriabin, Respighi, and
Richard Strauss. Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony employs the organ more
as an equitable orchestral instrument than for purely dramatic effect.
Poulenc wrote the sole organ concerto since Handel's to have achieved
mainstream popularity.
Because the organ has both manuals and pedals, organ music has come to
be notated on three staves. The music played on the manuals is laid
out like music for other keyboard instruments on the top two staves,
and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or
sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second stave as
was the early practice. To aid the eye in reading three staves at
once, the bar lines are broken between the lowest two staves; the
brace surrounds only the upper two staves. Because music racks are
often built quite low to preserve sightlines over the console, organ
music is usually published in oblong or landscape format.
Soap operas[edit]
From their creation on radio in the 1930s to the times of television
in the early 1970s, soap operas were perhaps the biggest users of
organ music. Day in and day out, the melodramatic serials utilized the
instrument in the background of scenes and in their opening and
closing theme songs. Some of the best-known soap organists included
Charles Paul, John Gart, and Paul Barranco. In the early 1970s, the
organ was phased out in favor of more dramatic, full-blown orchestras,
which in turn were replaced with more modern pop-style compositions.
Rock music[edit]

Church-style pipe organs are occasionally used in rock music. In some
cases, groups have sought out the sound of the pipe organ, such as
Tangerine Dream, and Arrogant Worms, which combined the distinctive
sounds of electronic synthesizers and pipe organs when it recorded
both music albums and videos in several cathedrals in Europe. Rick
Wakeman of British progressive rock group Yes also used pipe organ to
excellent effect in a number of the group's albums (including Close to
the Edge and Going for the One). Wakeman has also used pipe organ in
his solo pieces such as "Jane Seymour" from The Six Wives Of Henry
VIII and "Judas Iscariot" from Criminal Record.
Even more recently, he has recorded an entire album of organ
pieces –
Rick WakemanRick Wakeman at Lincoln Cathedral. Likewise, Keith
Emerson used a pipe organ with
The NiceThe Nice and progressive rock group
Emerson, Lake and PalmerEmerson, Lake and Palmer on their earlier albums on the songs "The
Three Fates," "The Only Way" and "Promenade."
George DukeGeorge Duke employed the
pipe organ in a flamboyant manner in the piece "50/50" on the Frank
Zappa album Over-Nite Sensation.
Dennis DeYoungDennis DeYoung of American rock group
Styx used the pipe organ at Chicago's St. James
CathedralCathedral on the song
"I'm O.K." on the group's 1978 album Pieces of Eight. More recently,
Arcade FireArcade Fire have used a church organ on the songs "Intervention" and
"My Body Is a Cage" on their second album Neon Bible. Muse have also
used a church organ on their album
Origin of SymmetryOrigin of Symmetry in the form of
"Megalomania", and also briefly in "Unnatural Selection", found on The
Resistance, played by their frontman
Matt BellamyMatt Bellamy on both occasions.
It has been performed live only once on a pipe organ, at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Roger HodgsonRoger Hodgson (formerly of Supertramp) used a pipe organ
for the songs "Say Goodbye", "Open the Door" and ""Danielle"" in 2000
for the album Open the Door.
Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant from
10,000 Maniacs10,000 Maniacs used
a pipe organ for "Hateful Hate", which appeared on the group's 1989
album Blind Man's Zoo.
On the other hand, electronic organs and electromechanical organs such
as the
Hammond organHammond organ have an established role in a number of
popular-music genres, such as blues, jazz, gospel, and 1960s and 1970s
rock music. Electronic and electromechanical organs were originally
designed as lower-cost substitutes for pipe organs. Despite this
intended role as a sacred music instrument, electronic and
electromechanical organs' distinctive tone-often modified with
electronic effects such as vibrato, rotating Leslie speakers, and
overdrive-became an important part of the sound of popular music.
Billy PrestonBilly Preston and Iron Butterfly's
Doug Ingle have featured organ on
popular recordings such as "Let it Be" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida",
respectively. Well-known rock artists using the
Hammond organHammond organ include
Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Pink Floyd, Hootie & the Blowfish,
Sheryl Crow,
Sly StoneSly Stone and Deep Purple.
Recent performers of popular organ music include
William Rowland of
Broken Arrow, OklahomaBroken Arrow, Oklahoma who is noted for his compositions of "Piano
Rags," which he plays on a Wurlitzer theatre organ in Miami, Oklahoma;
George Wright (1920–1998) whose "Jealousie" and "Puttin on the Ritz"
are some of the finest performances of this genre and Virgil Fox
(1912–1980), who bridged both the classical and religious areas of
music with pop and so-called Heavy Organ concerts that he played on an
electronic organ accompanied by a light show similar to those created
in the 1960s for rock concerts. Jimmy Smith was a famous jazz organist
of the 20th century.
The
American Theater Organ SocietyAmerican Theater Organ Society (ATOS) has been instrumental in
programs to preserve the instruments originally installed in theatres
for accompaniment of silent movies. In addition to local chapter
events they hold an annual convention each year, highlighting
performers and instruments in a specific locale. These instruments
feature the Tibia pipe family as their foundation stops and regular
use of tremulants. They were usually equipped with mechanical
percussion accessories, pianos, and other imitative sounds useful in
creating movie sound accompaniments such as auto horns, doorbells, and
bird whistles.
Sporting organs[edit]

In the United States and Canada, organ music is commonly associated
with several sports, most notably baseball, basketball, and ice
hockey.
The baseball organ has been referred to as "an accessory to the
overall auditory experience of the ballpark."[16] The first team to
introduce an organ during breaks of play (before and after games, in
between innings, and during longer stoppages) was the
ChicagoChicago Cubs,
who put an organ in
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field as an experiment in 1941 for two
games. Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired baseball's
first full-time organist, Gladys Gooding, the following year, who
eventually gained so much fame as to become the punchline of a joke:
"Who played every game last year for the Dodgers without making an
error?".
Over the years, many ballparks caught on to the trend, and many
organists became well-known and associated with their parks or
signature tunes:
Eddie LaytonEddie Layton playing at Yankee Stadium for over 50
years,
Jane Jarvis greeting the
New York MetsNew York Mets at
Shea StadiumShea Stadium with
their club song "Meet the Mets", Ernie Hays serenading a Busch
Memorial Stadium crowd with "Here Comes the King",
Nancy Bea as the
organist for the Dodgers,
ChicagoChicago favorite
Nancy FaustNancy Faust urging Chicago
White Sox fans to tell an opposing pitcher or a home run to "Na Na Hey
Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" or
Rick DePiroRick DePiro playing for Cleveland Indians
games in the 1980s and known for his youth and controversy, with songs
like "If I Only Had A Brain" played often for the umpires. During the
1990s, several teams replaced their organists entirely with recorded
music and sound effects. However, many fans support organs at
ballparks, believing it to be a traditional aspect of the game. As a
result, several teams (notably the
St. Louis CardinalsSt. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh
Pirates) have begun to feature organ music more prominently, and in
2009 the
Atlanta BravesAtlanta Braves re-introduced an organist at Turner Field,
even going so far as to promote his
TwitterTwitter feed to take requests from
fans.
Some organists include:
National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League [17][edit]

Jazz[edit]
The electric organ, especially the Hammond B-3, has occupied a
significant role in jazz ever since Jimmy Smith made it popular in the
1950s. It can function as a replacement for both piano and bass in the
standard jazz combo. The
Hammond organHammond organ is the centrepiece of the organ
trio, a small ensemble which typically includes an organist (playing
melodies, chords and basslines), a drummer and a third instrumentalist
(either jazz guitar or saxophone). In the 2000s, many performers use
electronic or digital organs, called clonewheel organs, as they are
much lighter and easier to transport than the heavy, bulky B-3.
Historical instruments[edit]

Panpipes

Hydraulis

Portative

Positive

Regal

(after the 16th century)[18]

Predecessors[edit]

Panpipes, pan flute, syrinx, and nai, etc., are considered as ancestor
of the pipe organ.
Aulos, an ancient double reed instrument with two pipes, is the origin
of the word Hydr-aulis (water-aerophone).

Early organs[edit]

3rd century BC - the Hydraulis, ancient Greek water-powered organ
played by valves.[19]
1st century (at least) - the Ptera and the Pteron, ancient Roman
organ similar in appearance to the portative organs[20]
2nd century - the Magrepha, ancient Hebrew organ of ten pipes played
by a keyboard[21][22][23]
8th century - Pippin's organ of 757 (Carolingian dynasty)[24]
9th century - the automatic flute player (and possibly automatic
hydropowered organ), a mechanical organ by the Banū Mūsā
brothers[citation needed]

Medieval organs[edit]

Portative organ, a small portable medieval instrument
Positive organ, a somewhat larger though still portable instrument
(occurs on an obelisk of the 4th century)
Regal, a small portable late-medieval instrument with reed pipes and
two bellows.
16th century - useless resonance pipes were removed, and regal became
a beating-reed organ.
It may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium and reed organs, and
the varieties of 'squeezebox'

Various instruments[edit]
Reed organs[edit]

A harmonium

Main article: Reed organ

Harmonium or parlor organ are a reed instrument, usually with many
stops and two foot-operated bellows.
The
American reed organAmerican reed organ is a foot bellows or electric reed keyboard
similar to the Harmonium, but that works on negative pressure—i.e.,
it sucks air through the reeds.
The Melodeon (not to be confused with the
Diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordion of
the same name) is a reed instrument with an air reservoir and a foot
operated bellows. It was popular in the US in the mid-19th century.

Squeezeboxes[edit]
Main article: Squeezebox

Squeezeboxes—such as the accordion, concertina, Bandoneón,
etc.—are free reed instruments that a musician plays by manually
squeezing the bellows.

Barrel organ—made famous by organ grinders in its portable form, the
larger form often equipped with keyboards for human performance
Organette—small, accordion-like instrument manufactured in New York
in the late 1800s
Novelty instruments or various types that operate on the same
principles:
Orchestrion, fairground organ (or band organ in the USA), dutch street
organ and Dance organ—these pipe organs use a piano roll player or
other mechanical means instead of a keyboard to play a prepared song.

Recorder, a kind of fipple flute that uses the same mechanism for
sound production as the pipe organ.
Harmonica, where the musician effectively blows directly onto the
reeds, is also known as a mouth organ;
Melodica, also known as 'blow-organ'

Bagpipes
Asian free reed instruments, such as the Chinese Sheng, Lusheng,
Hulusi, Yu, Bawu, and Hulusheng, plus the Japanese Shō, Thai Khene,
and Korean
SaenghwangSaenghwang are known to be the inspiration for the western
reed organ.[citation needed]

Choosing a Church Organ in the 21st Century
Rimbault, Edward Francis (c. 1865). The Early English Organ Builders
and their work. London: William Reeves.
Willis, Stephen Charles. Pipes and Pedals: Chronicles of Canadian
Organs and Organists = Tuyaux et jeux: pages d'histoire de l'orgue au
Canada. N.B.: Prepared for an exhibition, of the same English and
French titles, at the National Library of Canada, opening on 16 May
1983; some copies include, as laid in the document, the published
list, by C.-P. G. Parker of the recorded music played as background
for the exhibit and also a listing of organ recitals played as
ancillary events. ISBN 0-662-52397-0

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organs (music).

Organ Library of the Boston Chapter, AGO. 45,000 items of organ music.
MusicMusic and organ recital at Notre-Dame de Paris
npor.org.uk – Homepage of the National Pipe Organ Register of
the British Institute of Organ Studies, with extensive information on
and many audio samples of original instruments
The Organ Historical Society – The Society promotes a
widespread musical and historical interest in American organbuilding
through collection, preservation, and publication of historical
information, and through recordings and public concerts.